General Health-Related Quality of Life in Preschool Children with Strabismus or Amblyopia

Objective To explore the associations of general health-related quality of life (GHRQOL) with strabismus or amblyopia in preschool children. Design Population-based study. Participants Sample of children aged 25 to 72 months in the Multi-ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS). Methods The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), a measure of GHRQOL, was administered to the parents of the children. Main Outcome Measures The PedsQL consists of 4 subscales (physical, emotional, social, and school functioning) and 3 composite scores (physical summary, psychosocial summary, and total). Regression models were used to evaluate the associations of GHRQOL with strabismus (in children 25–72 months) or amblyopia (in children 30–72 months). Results Of the 4218 children aged ≥25 months, 121 (2.9%) were diagnosed with strabismus. Significant differences were found in all 3 composite scores between children with and without strabismus, before and after controlling for gender, age, race, family income, systemic health conditions, and prior knowledge of strabismus diagnosis ( P 0.05). Conclusions Strabismus was associated with significantly worse GHRQOL in preschool children. Although we did not find any detectable association between amblyopia and GHRQOL, further study using vision-specific instruments is required to explore the impact of both strabismus and amblyopia on pediatric quality of life. Financial Disclosure(s) The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.